INTERPRETATION
DISCUSSION
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Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado |
April 19, 2000
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AMSU Loop |
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The RAMSDIS On Line web pages offer primarily satellite imagery from GOES-E and GOES-W. The experimental products site, however, contains not only GOES products, but also images from NOAA's newest polar orbiting satellite, NOAA-15. Click on images to start loops |
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GOES-10 10.7 µm Loop |
In particular, the web page contains imagery derived from the AMSU (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit) instrument. An example loop of one of the AMSU's products, total precipitable water (over sea), and a complementary GOES-10 10.7 µm loop can be found above. The loops show a maritime low pressure system moving on shore in the Pacific Northwest. Note how the low pulls moisture all the way from the tropical regions of the western Pacific. The retrieval of total precipitable water by microwave data is hindered by rainwater. Those areas are colored black; an example is along the front moving onshore into Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. More information on the AMSU may be found at CIRA's AMSU web site.